published 20 Oct 1995 : 01 Jan 1996 updated
A reflexive relationship is one which relates an entity to itself. This is quite common in Bill-of-Materials or family tree type structures. In PowerDesigner a reflexiv relationship is drawn as any other, with the relationship icon in the tool box. Click on the entity, drag away, click again to suspend the relationship line on the drawing space, and finish by clicking again on the original entity. You may prefer to set the line style of the relationship to have an automatic rounded or square shape for neatness.
Reflexiv relationships are sometimes called "recursive" and "self-referencing".
Copyright © 1995 Applied Information Science International; 02 Jan 1996